An Unlikely Lad
by Rumaan
Summary: Sansa needs a date for Joffrey and Margaery's wedding, Arya and Gendry use her dilemma to do a little matchmaking


**Author's Note: Written for Jeeno2's birthday and chock full of tropes! Minor Arya x Gendry**

* * *

"What am I going to do?" Sansa wailed before she banged her head down onto Arya's wooden kitchen table.

"First off, you're not going to bruise your forehead because that's going to be a really shitty look with that killer dress you bought," Arya replied practically.

"I can't turn up single, Arya, not after I said I would be bringing a plus one."

"Why did you say you would bring someone again?" Arya asked.

"Because I know them. They gave me the option of a plus one to rub it in my face that I'm single. Still single and they are getting married – to each other!"

"Why not take Mya or Randa?"

"Marg knows I'm not bisexual. She made a move on me and I turned her down, emphasising that I'm straight, and I know it's stupid, that it's the 21st century and everything, but I want to pretend my plus one is romantic."

Arya cupped her chin in her hand and stared out the kitchen window. Sansa had come here to beg her sister for help. It was ridiculous that she was getting this worked up over Margaery's wedding to Joffrey, but she needed to at least look like she was carefree and happy. When Joffrey had dumped her for her best friend, she'd been shell-shocked, and they had both taken great pleasure in rubbing their relationship in her face for the rest of her final year at the University of King's Landing.

It wasn't even the end of her relationship with Joffrey that had hurt – no, Sansa had been glad to get out of that because he had violent tendencies and had pushed her around on more than one occasion. Her family hadn't known about it and she'd been scared to end it with him, dreading his reaction.

No, it was Marg's behaviour that hurt. She _knew_ about Joffrey, the one person Sansa had been able to confess everything to, but she'd jumped at the chance to date him so she could move higher up the social ladder. It was a betrayal that Sansa had struggled to come back from.

However, she was now studying her post-grad at Gulltown University with a new group of friends who cared less about money and social status and more about actual friendship. Sansa was happy for the first time in a couple of years.

But now, like a dark cloud hovering on the horizon, Margaery's celebrity wedding to Joffrey was taking place and Sansa really _really_ didn't want to turn up without a dashing date.

"The only people I can think of are Smalljon and Harrion," Arya said and Sansa grimaced.

They were both nice enough, great friends of Robb's who wouldn't look for this to be anything more than helping Sansa out. However, they would be awful in the kind of social milieu this wedding was bound to be.

Sansa banged her head on the table once more.

"What about Jon?" Gendry asked from the stove, where he was cooking lunch for the Stark sisters.

She looked at him blankly and out the corner of her eye, she could see Arya doing the same.

"Jon _Snow_ ," Gendry said exasperated. You know, your fifth cousin removed or whatever the hell he is."

Sansa started to shake her head, but Arya grinned at him and said, "Gendry, you gem of a boyfriend! He's right," she said turning to Sansa with a calculating gleam in her eye. "Jon is perfect for this."

"How is he perfect, Arya?"

Her sister scoffed and said, "Just because he wasn't part of your little social clique, it doesn't mean he can't play the game. Have you forgotten who his father is?"

Rhaegar Targaryen.

The Targaryens might have fallen on some hard times recently, but they were still important. Old leaders who held sway, and even though Jon was Rhaegar's bastard, he was still trotted out at political events every now and again.

"Plus," Arya added. "Joffrey _hates_ the Targaryens. He'll hate Jon on principal, especially as it's well known that Cersei had a thing for Rhaegar but he rejected her for Elia Martell. Go to Joffrey's wedding with Rhaegar's son and it's the biggest fuck you statement that you could make."

A smile spread across Sansa's lips until she realised that she didn't have the greatest relationship with Jon. It wasn't that she disliked him or anything, but they'd never been particularly close. Jon was all about the North, a true child of Lyanna Stark, but Sansa had always dreamed of the South.

"Would he do it?" she asked, gnawing on her lip nervously.

"For me he would," Arya said with a grin. "Jon'll do anything for me."

Which was true. Whilst he might be Robb's age and they were practically joined at the hip, Jon had a major soft spot for Arya. She was the little sister he'd never had and he adored her.

* * *

It seemed as if Arya was right – Jon would do anything for her, even if that anything included going to a hideous social wedding in King's Landing as Sansa Stark's fake date.

So now Sansa was waiting for him in the one truly decent restaurant in Winter Town. Arya had thought – sensibly – that it would be stupid for them to meet up again for the first time in ages at the actual wedding.

"You'd have no hope of pulling that of," she'd said, as she'd pushed Sansa into her room and ordered her to make herself sexy.

"It's _Jon_!" Sansa had protested. She'd planned on pretty much going in the jeans and blouse she had on. She looked cute in them and it was dinner with Jon Snow!

However, Arya just rolled her eyes and said, "Trust me, Sansa, you'll thank me when you lay eyes on him again."

And dammit, her little sister was right. Sansa was struggling not to gape as Jon crossed the restaurant towards where she sat waiting.

Where had the awkward gangly teenage boy who tended to prop up walls and hide behind Robb gone?

Jon Snow was every inch a man now, which she supposed he should be at the age of twenty-five, however her eyes still widened at his broad shoulders, long limbs and nicely muscled arms. Then there was the neatly trimmed beard that somehow made him look even manlier. It wasn't fair.

Only the slightly melancholy grey eyes remained.

"Sansa," he said, his voice deep and husky and a far cry from the sulky whine she remembered from their youth. "Sorry I'm late."

"Five minutes only," Sansa said with a smile, "and I've only just arrived, too."

Jon pulled out the chair and sat as the waiter came over brandishing menus. They avoided each other's eyes as they perused the menus and ordered their meal, but once that has been completed an awkward silence fell between them.

Sansa played with the stem on her wine glass desperate to try and think of something to say. She was meant to be _good_ at this, making small talk, but all she could think at the moment is how pathetic Jon must think she is.

They both started to talk at the same time.

"So, Arya said you're based in Gull-"

"Thanks for doing this-"

Jon gave her an awkward smile and said, "Go on. You first."

Dropping her eyes the table, she traced a pattern in the table cloth. "I just wanted to thank you for doing this. It's a really strange request and I'm pretty embarrassed about it."

His hand stretched out and covered hers warmly. "There's no need to be embarrassed, Sansa. We've all had terrible break-ups."

"Yeah, but fake dating takes this to a whole other level."

"You want to hear my embarrassing ex-girlfriend story?" he asked, his lips curled up into a smile that made his eyes crinkle endearing at the corners.

"Yes please!" Sansa exclaimed. "That would make me feel so much better."

Jon laughed and she could not help but stare at him. He looked so good that it took all her willpower not to lean across the table and press a soft kiss into the creases that bracketed his mouth.

 _Get a grip!_ She lectured herself. In all the scenarios she'd imagined tonight, Jon being this unfairly attractive had not been one of them.

"Well, my ex-girlfriend was an archery student at Castle Black – good enough that she could represent Westeros in the Pan-Terros Games and I was dumb enough to break up with her during a practice session."

Sansa's hand crept up to her mouth, not in an expression of horror but to try and cover the grin. "Jon! What were you thinking?"

"I know. I was lucky to get out of there alive?"

"She actually shot you?"

"Not quite, but the arrow did nick my ear!"

She gave in to her amusement then, the peel of laughter bursting from her lips and the tension that'd had her sitting so tautly dissipated.

"Sorry," she said. "I shouldn't laugh but…"

"Nah, it's alright. The boys up at Castle Black have never let me live it down."

Any awkwardness between them disappeared completely and the conversation flowed a lot more easily for the rest of the dinner. Sansa couldn't help but compare this confident Jon with the boy who'd been so bad with girls that she'd taken pity on him and tried to teach him how to talk to the opposite sex.

They caught up on what they are both doing, Jon showing interest in her plans to be an ambassador for the North in a way Joffrey never had. He even offered to introduce her to his aunt, Daenerys, who headed up the fortunes of House Targaryen and travelled extensively around Essos handling their business portfolios. It was exactly the kind of helpful suggestion that Sansa had always wanted Joffrey to offer, but he'd always just laughed off her career ambitions and sneered that no one would want to trade with the North as it had nothing to offer.

Before she knew it, the waiter was apologising but giving them the bill as they were now closing. Sansa looked around and noted with surprise that they were the only two left in restaurant.

"Let me get this, Jon," she said, putting her hand out for the bill.

He shook his head and gave his card to the waiter. "Let me treat you. Call it a belated graduation present."

Sansa smiled her thanks, but her heart sank a little. Jon paying for dinner made it feel more like a date than she liked, which was ridiculous really as she was asking him to be her fake date for a wedding. However, that had been before she'd laid eyes on him and spent one of the nicest evenings of her life in his company.

 _This is how dates are meant to be_ , she thought. Not Joffrey being dismissive and rude, and then expecting her put out at the end. She'd recently gone on a few dates with Harry Hardyng in Gulltown, too, but, whilst they'd been pleasant, he was a little too fond of talking about himself and didn't show too much interest in Sansa beyond her looks. She was fed up of men who just saw her beauty and her birth and nothing else. She was more than that.

Now, Jon had come along and done all the things that she'd always wanted other dates to do, and even though this was _not_ a date, she going to hold much higher expectations from any future men. In theory that was a good thing, but she couldn't help but wonder if anyone was going to live up to the standard Jon had set.

She turned towards him as they stood on the pavement outside the restaurant. "Where are you staying whilst you're in town?" she asked.

"At my mum's."

Suppressing the disappointment that they were going to be parting right now, Sansa held her hand out and said, "Thanks once more for agreeing to come to this awful wedding with me."

He took her hand but instead of shaking it, he tugged her closer to him. "Do you think I'm going to let you walk back to Winterfell on your own? I believe _someone_ told me that it was always polite to walk your dates home at the end of the night."

She flushed a little at the memory of her younger self giving Jon dating tips before she realised exactly what he'd said. Her heart beat a little faster with the implication and deciding to take a risk, she peeped up at him shyly and whispered nervously, "Is that what this is? A date?"

Jon looked down at her thoughtfully before he asked, "Do _you_ want it to be or have I read this whole evening wrong?"

"No," she murmured. "You haven't read it wrong at all."

He bent his head then and brushed his lips softly but briefly against hers. He leaned back and her lips chased his, her arms snaking around his neck as she pulled his head back down until there were mere centimetres between them.

"You can't just kiss me like that and stop," she said teasingly.

"I can't, huh?" he asked, his breath fanning her cheeks hotly. His hand came up and cupped her jaw warmly as he kissed her deeply.

* * *

"Pleased with yourself?" Gendry asked Arya, as they cuddled in bed.

She'd had no shame and had blatantly spied on Jon and Sansa as they'd returned from the restaurant, peeking through the curtains down at them and squealing as she noticed their linked hands and then sighing happily as Jon had leaned down and kissed Sansa.

"It worked!" she'd sang, dancing around the room.

Gendry had rolled his eyes affectionately. "Why were you so keen on setting them up, anyway?"

"Because despite Sansa's silence, I know Joffrey treated her badly. I overheard her once on the phone to Margaery about it. Jon is a good man and he'll treat her right. Besides, he had the biggest crush on Sansa when they were teenagers. Robb and Theon were really obnoxious about it. And after Ygritte, he deserves someone who'll be a little softer with him and care more about his opinions."

Now, Arya glowed with her match-making success and she couldn't wait to gloat over the pictures from Margaery's wedding. Sansa would look like a knock out and Jon would be her very dashing date.

Joffrey and Margaery could suck it!


End file.
